Well, as I am sure you all know I am still here in Kremenchuk and we just finished the first week of my 3rd transfer with Elder Jarman. We said goodbye to Masha this week as she went to Germany for work. I will likely never see her again and it is sad to realize that soon I will have to say many such goodbyes. Hopefully Ill be able to come back to Ukraine some time in the future.
Big events this week is probably our Sport night on saturday. WE played basketball with a bunch of teenagers, hopefully we will be able to help them all out. It is depressing to see how addicted they are to smoking here. Between every game they have to stop and take a smoke break. We want to be a good influence on these kids. Fortunately they are starting to respect me after all of the 3's I have rained down on them. Hopefully we can use our friendship to help them come to the gospel.
Funny story: Elder Jarman was supposed to lead our Sunday School lesson yesterday with me as the support. And then our entire plan changed right before the lesson. I looked at him and said come on you can do. But he was like. "what am I supposed to do? our entire plan just went out the window" So I saved him and asked some questions to get a conversation going and then we were able to do what he had planned. Its funny because Russian is actually really hard, and when what you wanted to say gets thrown out the window it can be difficult to react. He took it well though.
I talked yesterday in Sacrament meeting on Charity, Patience and Love and how we need more of it in our branch.
I know this is the Lords work and this week I feel more sure than ever about that. The Lord has taken me higher than I myself could have reached. Anything good I ever did do I owe to Him.
Hey buddy,
So don't forget to write dad a Happy Father's Day note:)
I am actually not feeling well tonight so my email may be shorter.
Today Jacob had to speak in Sacrament about Fathers. It was pretty rough preparing for it. He spent 2 hours crying last night and couldn't even get through the first couple lines. We kept rewriting it and finally was able to get one written that he could give. He was able to do it today and he really did a great job. I'll send you the talk.
Jacob and Jordy had their first track meet this week. It was super long and boring. Me and Cam were dying the whole time. Jacob ran a 6.12 mile...and took 6th place. The first place runner had a time of 5.30!!! That is so fast for a 14 year old! Jordy was terrible slow unfortunately!
Josh spent the week at Boys State and had a great time. He was able to run for a few different offices and he also got to be a judge for the mock trial. He was awarded a scholarship to Weber for 50% tuition.
The Tboys spent the weekend here and everyone had a good time. We had a work party for some of Dad's team and their families. Ethan was the lifeguard.
I have been having some health issues and they suspected MS. It was scary the last month going through all the tests, but we learned on Friday that it is NOT MS. So yay for that! I do have some herniated discs in my neck and bone spurs causing spinal stenosis. So the nerves to my arms are being cut off. We have a plan in place to get some physical therapy to help. I also suffer from chronic headaches that they are going to try and fix. Which means a medicine change which is what is making me feel sick today. Hopefully my body will adjust quickly and I can start feeling better soon.
I miss you very much.
Questions-
1-Tell me a funny story.
2-How is your branch doing?
3- is the wedding still on? Will you get to go to it?
4-How are they progressing in the lessons?
5-How are you and Elder Jarman doing?
6-Are you still happy and positive?
7-ANy changes with that girl situation?
8-What was the best part of your week?
9-Do you ever get to see any other missionaries?
10-Do you want to go on a vacation over Christmas break or spend it at home?
11-pics
12-recordings
13-message for me:)
14-College...please go on to the BYU site and look at the classes. You are 4th on the waiting list for the Russian class. I am trying to get you the permission code to add the AFROTC class. You may need to add or drop classes that first week...I am doing my best on it. What else can I do?
Remember your byu net id and pass jaxonhj 1byucougars1
I miss you like crazy and I love you. Thanks for serving a mission. I hope you have a great week. You are always in my prayers. Keep working hard and giving the Lord your all!!
Love you Mom
1 Okay so we were at the branch after choir, and we have a member here that is just straight up crazy. She is super duper nice, but she is like 5 years old inside of her head. So we were siting down for choir and Sister Alexandra(A recent convert) brought flowers for Ira(the crazy old lady). She gave Ira the flowers and Ira said "Whos is this from" Giggling. ANd Alexandra answered from the Lord. SIster Ira was SOOOOOOO happy. She absolutley loved it. She treated those flowers like the best gift ever. During choir shed just be singing her own words to the song trying to sound like an angel. It is so funny and adorable. After choir, Elder Bates brought out a bag of cookies a lady a gave him that he and Elder Snow didnt want so they "shared" with everyone. And Sister Ira was very selective about getting the best cookies she ended up with almost all of them. Then she brought her own bag and shared with everyone. She made Elder Jarman take like 3 Elder Bates took one and Elder Snow took one. Then she came to me and I said I could only take one because I wanted to be healthy, and she said Okay, thats good. So she saw Elder Bates had eaten his and offered another he said he couldnt any more(she is super insistent and its like impossible to say no to Ukrainians) But he got out of it with out a cookie. I got an evil smile on my face and said "Ira, I heard him say he wanted 3 more" She smiled super big and followed him with the cookies and Elder Bates was like asked her why she thought he wanted more, and said that he didnt. She said of course you do, He said so. We left right then so that Elder Bates couldnt return fire. It is sad to see how gone she is, but at the same time not, because she is probably more happy than a lot of other people.
2Good there are some problems with a lonely woman who says incorrect things and then people tear her apart, so that is kinda tough, we are trying to help her.
3Yes, they havent invited us yet, but I hope so. I dont think it will be a big event since she is pregnant.
4Not super good. its hard to meet with them without Viktor. Luckily he will be back soon.
5Super good we dont ever have problems with eachother.
6Yes
7 UUUUUGHHH. I hate this situation. Luckily Masha is finally in Germany and I wont ever see her again, so we dont have to worry about me marrying her or getting ETd or anything of that sort. So here is the full story. Because she was leaving and she was going to miss us we did something with her on P-day last week and thought that would be enough, but no, it wasnt. So the next night at english we were walking home and we thought that would be the last time we saw her, but no, it wasnt. She wanted to meet on Wednesday night for dinner with us all and her sister, so we did it, thinking eh its dinner, shell be offended if we dont go might as well(WE are going to teach her sister the plan of salvation this week.), and then we can leave after and nothing else will happen. But no we couldnt. So we had to walk with them after and we were trying so hard to make it a good experience for her. We get to a point where The other Elders have to turn off to go home, so they walk with us and her sister to the bus stop. When she said goodbye to Elder Bates he hugged her(In our mission the rule is if it is as friends then its okay, but if you have feelings or its flirty, of course not.) So I have spent the last 6 weeks carefully choosing words, and maneuvering situations to avoid the "Conversation". We get to our bus stop she looks at me and Elder Jarman and asks if we are going to hug her good bye. I think for a moment trying to get out of it somehow, dont see many options and go with. " Well, why do you want me to hug you?" she said "because we are friends." so I said cool .2 second hug and done. (Vladlena was disappointed there wasnt more, she wanted me to like kiss her or confess my (nonexistent) love or something gooshy like that.) Then she asked EJ for a hug and he said no, and there was a small argument but it didnt matter(he doesnt want to have to give Vladlena a hug in the future so thats probs why he said no). Then we got on our bus and left. Right after we sat down she sent me a text saying that she lied about the friends thing. Me and Elder Jarman talked it over after and decided the hug wasnt a big deal. Now I just have to be careful on emails which is much easier. Masha is a super nice girl, but I dont have those kind of feelings for her, and I am not going to be the 2nd missionary to say "Ill come back for you" and then gets married to someone else.
Now with Vladlena, who is still here. She is the real problem. So she calls, I call her back to see whats up. I got Masha to read the whole BoM so now I am trying to get Vladlena to do it too. So last night I asked over the phone how it was going. She doesnt want to read. And i cant make here read, but she makes it sound like she doesnt need to read. And then complains about how terrible her life is and about how none of her friends care about her and how we dont care about her(shes trying to manipulate me... no) So after she said I dont care about her I told her she was wrong and that thats the whole reason I want her to read the book and then she tried to make me feel bad by saying that the other day she was sick and Masha said she could call us and we would bring her medicine. But she didnt because "we dont care"(weve brought her medicine several times, or whatever small thing she needs when she is sick, so thats bull crap) So I said good night vladlena. And hung up. She is super terribly manipulative, she brought Elder Larsen to tears one time. If she wants to keep playing the "my life is hard" game I might just send her your story let her realize there are a lot tougher places to be at her age. She is lucky I am super patient. Basically I am not going to have any conversation with her that doesnt have some sort of missionary purpose(She calls for no reason sometimes, like last night). So thats that situation. That is basically always the situation with her. Not sure what to do, other than hope shell snap out of it. Dont worry about me with her, its not something that is emotionally tough for me, just a bit frustrating and time wasting.
8 Elder Jarman have a Basketball finding idea approved and that is going super well. That is probably the best thing. We have made some good friends there.
9Not unless we have zone conference.
10 I just want to be home with everyone again.
13I love you so much and you are the best, I am so glad you dont have MS that would be so terrifying and hard. I hope the new medicine works for your headaches. I am so glad that we have such a good relationship and that I can trust you 100 percent, I hope you trust me that much too. I love you and I miss you so much. I only have to write 9-10 more emails to you at this point before I get home. Love you!
I looked and everything looks normal except for the Missing classes( Russian and ROTC thing). I hope it works. I love you!
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